Contents:
- Medical Video: The benefits of a bilingual brain - Mia Nacamulli
- What happens to the brain when learning a foreign language?
- Benefits of learning foreign languages to improve brain function
Medical Video: The benefits of a bilingual brain - Mia Nacamulli
Did you know, learning a foreign language can actually improve brain function! This applies to all ages, from children to parents. Research from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland shows that learning a foreign language has a positive effect on the brain, even if it is studied when you are an adult.
Researchers show the brains of people who study two languages or more with people who learn only one language have significant differences. Language involves left brain functions, namely the dominant and analytical brain in logical processes and also the right hemisphere which is active in emotional and social processes.
Research also states that improving brain function is an important thing to do and learning languages is the most effective and practical way to make it happen. Talking and learning foreign languages keeps your memories sharp and keeps your brain against aging.
In addition, the benefit for children is that children are more aware of how this language works in each context, understand what the meaning of each word he learns so that they are able to define this awareness is also called metalinguistic awareness. When someone has a balanced two-language ability, most of them know how to use both languages according to the context.
What happens to the brain when learning a foreign language?
Learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain. This is what Swedish scientists discovered when they used a brain scan tool to monitor what happens when someone learns a foreign language. This research is part of further research that reveals what is happening in our brain when we hear, understand and learn languages outside of mother tongue.
MRI studies in Sweden show that learning a foreign language has a noticeable effect on the brain. Through his research, the results of MRI scans showed that certain parts of the brain possessed by people with two-language abilities (bilingual) experienced growth in terms of size compared to those who only had one language ability (monolingual). People who study two languages experience a development of brain size that occurs in the hippocampus and cerebral area of the cortex. The hippocampus is a part of the cerebrum that plays a role in activities related to memory and room navigation. In other words, this shows that the area of the brain that grows is related to which part of the brain is active when learning languages.
Benefits of learning foreign languages to improve brain function
Researchers prove that learning foreign languages has proven to have many benefits for improving brain function, including:
- The bilingual and multilingual brain improves cognitive function, which can delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Studies in Canada in people with bilingual brain help you to stay cognitively healthy until the following years.
- People who speak more than one language fluently have better memories and are more cognitively creative and mentally flexible than monolingual.
- People who learn more than one language are better at filtering out unnecessary words than people who only speak one language. The brains of people who only master one language must work harder to complete the same task. Researchers believe this because being bilingual is a constant brain exercise.
- Antonella Sorace, a linguist from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, states that people who learn a second language can focus more undisturbed so they have better ability to switch from one task to another than people with a monolingual brain, or who only learn one language .
- Researchers found that adults who were proficient in two languages performed better on attention tests and had better concentration than those who only spoke one language, regardless of whether they knew the second language in childhood, childhood or childhood. their teenagers. Language makes people more aware of how language works in general, which is called metalinguistic awareness.
- Have a better memory for example in remembering names, directions, and other things.
A 2014 study published in the journal Brain and Language finds people who learn foreign languages don't always make you smarter, but your brain stays healthy and active. So, it's never too late to learn a new language, to improve the functioning of your brain.
